War Criminal Arrested
September 20, 2007
German authorities have detained a former Hutu minister wanted in connection with Rwanda's 1994 civil war and genocide.
"He is suspected of providing weapons to Hutu militias and civilians during the 1994 civil war and thereby enabling them in the genocide of Tutsis," a police spokeswoman said on Wednesday, Sept. 19.
The 50-year-old suspect had been trying to evade arrest in Frankfurt by repeatedly changing hotels and apartments, she said. He was caught near Frankfurt on Monday at the request of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
The man is now expected to be extradited to the Tanzania-based ICTR, which was set up to try the masterminds behind the 1994 slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Identity confirmed
ICTR spokesman Roland Amoussouga confirmed the ex-minister's identity as Augustin Ngirabatware, a former Hutu minister on the tribunal's list of war crimes suspects, the AFP news agency reported.
Rwandan Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama hailed the arrest as a step forward.
"[My country] will demand that justice be done and that this genocide suspect be quickly extradited to the ICTR to answer for his acts."
The state prosecution in Frankfurt told AFP that extraditing the suspect could "take a long time" as he might challenge the process.
Ngirabatware served as Rwanda's planning minister for the four years leading up to the genocide and has since lived in Gabon and France.
His father-in-law, business magnate Felicien Kabuga, is another genocide suspect and is believed to have held the purse-strings of Rwanda's so-called hate media, which incited ethnic Hutus to "kill the Tutsi cockroaches."
Massacre
Between April and June 1994, an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed. Most of the victims were Tutsis, and most of those who perpetrated the violence were Hutus.
Based in Arusha, Tanzania, the ICTR was set up by the United Nations in the aftermath of the genocide to try the key suspects in the massacres.
Since its first trial in 1997, the ICTR has convicted 27 people and acquitted five suspects. It is due to wind up in 2008, when most pending cases are expected to be transferred back to the Rwandan capital, Kigali.